Housing complex ‘De Dageraad’

The detailing of the residential quarters that Michel de Klerk designed for Amsterdam around 1920 is phenomenal. It made the expressionistic character of Amsterdam School architecture famous around the world.

Each detail is a sculpture in its own right, but it is also designed in close connection with the whole. The master’s hand is clearly visible in these design sketches for the facades and floor plans of the De Dageraad (‘Daybreak’) housing complex: they capture the moment when searching becomes the formulation a solution